Wimbledon 2024: Andy Murray pulls out of singles draw, plus

Follow live updates from the second day’s play at SW19Raducanu inspired by England | And you can email Tom

It’s a measure of the man, and his tenacity and love for the sport, that Andy Murray is still up for the doubles with brother Jamie. Just as we always admired those old footballers that eked out the final years of their career in the lower divisions, and cricketers such as Marcus Trescothick he played on for their counties long after their international careers were over, there’s much to commend in that. Kevin Mitchell wrote about this eloquently at the weekend.

Andy Murray has been forced to withdraw from the singles draw at his final Wimbledon after he was unable to recover sufficiently from the back surgery he underwent 10 days before Wimbledon began.

“Unfortunately, despite working incredibly hard on his recovery since his operation just over a week ago, Andy has taken the very difficult decision not to play the singles this year. As you can imagine, he is extremely disappointed but has confirmed that he will be playing in the doubles with Jamie and looks forward to competing at Wimbledon for the last time,” Murray’s representatives said in a statement.

Murray’s preparations for his final Wimbledon had suffered a painful blow two weeks ago when he was forced to withdraw from Queen’s due to pain and numbness in his back and right leg. Murray soon underwent back surgery to remove a spinal cyst and he has been rushing to recover in time to compete in his scheduled first round match against Tomas Machac of the Czech Republic. Murray will, however compete in the doubles draw with his brother, Jamie.